The Victorian Serial

Front Cover
University Press of Virginia, 1991 - Literary Criticism - 354 pages

Linda K. Hughes and Michael Lund provide a new approach to the study of installment literature by showing how it embodied a view of life intrinsic to Victorian culture. They examine how the serial format affected the ways Victorian audiences interpreted sixteen major works of poetry and fiction. Their findings show that Victorian interpretations were different from those of twentieth century single-volume readings.

Hughes and Lund conclude that in order to understand Victorian literature, we must understand serialization, since it was the vehicle for the best literature of the age. Further, they assert we must understand serialization as a literary form attuned to the fundamental spirit of the age.

Other editions - View all

About the author (1991)

Linda K. Hughes is Associate Professor of English at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth. She is the author of The Manyfaced Glass: Tennyson's Dramatic Monologues. Michael Lund is Professor of English at Longwood College, Farmville, Virginia, and is the author of Reading Thackeray.

Bibliographic information